Engagement in Lifestyle Activities is Associated with Increased Alzheimer's Disease-Associated Cortical Thickness and Cognitive Performance in Older Adults.

Seongryu Bae,Hyuntae Park,Yohei Shinkai,Sangyoon Lee,Kenji Harada,Ippei Chiba,Hiroyuki Shimada,Osamu Katayama,Keitaro Makino

doi:10.3390/jcm9051424

Seongryu Bae, Hyuntae Park + Show 7 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm9051424

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Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the association between lifestyle activities, including physical, cognitive, and social activities, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) signature cortical thickness, as well as to examine the mediating role of AD signature cortical thickness in lifestyle activities and cognitive function in community-dwelling healthy older adults. Participants were 1026 older adults who met the study inclusion criteria. The physical, cognitive, and social activities of daily life were assessed using a self-reporting questionnaire. AD signature cortical thickness was determined using FreeSurfer software. Cognitive function was evaluated using the National Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology-Functional Assessment Tool. Path analysis (based on structural equation modeling (SEM)) of cognitive activities indicated that the direct path from cognitive activities to cognitive function was significant (p < 0.001), as was the direct path from AD signature cortical thickness to cognitive function (p < 0.001). Physical (p < 0.05) or social activities (p < 0.05) had a direct effect on cognitive function. However, AD signature cortical thickness did not mediate the relationship between physical or social activities and cognitive function. Our findings suggest that higher levels of cognitive activities later in life have a significant and positive direct effect on cognitive function. Additionally, AD signature cortical thickness significantly mediates the relationship between cognitive activities and cognitive function.

Highlights

Aging is a major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD)
AD signature cortical thickness significantly mediated the relationship between cognitive activities and cognitive performance
Our results indicate that cognitive activities were significantly correlated with AD signature cortical thickness, Word List Memory test score, Story Memory test score, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, Symbol Digit Substitution Test (SDST) score, and TMT B-A

Summary

Introduction

Aging is a major risk factor for neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Multimodal activities that incorporate varying levels of engagement in physical, cognitive, and social activities have a meaningful impact on community-dwelling elderly people [2,3]. Engagement in these multimodal lifestyle activities, either simultaneously or sequentially, have shown promising benefits in terms of cognitive function [4] and brain health [5,6,7] in cognitively normal older adults. Some studies have shown that greater engagement in physical activity is associated with larger brain volume (especially in the frontal and hippocampal areas of healthy older adults) as well as MCI [13,14,15]. Brain structure likely mediates the link between lifestyle activities and reduction in the risk of cognitive decline

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